And yet it is crucial to remember that Trump is not the only reason the edifice of American government is cracking. Much of the blame lies on House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The men who gathered at Philadelphia in 1787 to write our Constitution fully anticipated the risk that someone like Trump could one day take power. They prepared for it. They built a series of checks into our Constitution to enforce limits on the President and, should the worst happen, remove him from office.

What the founding fathers did not expect was a House and Senate so toxic and corrupt that they are willing to waive every constitutional check they have on the president in return for partisan goal-scoring.

And yet Ryan and McConnell are insisting there is no need even for an independent prosecutor in the Russia investigation, despite the fact that Trump’s attorney general blatantly compromised himself and the congressional committee probes have faced a string of ethical conflicts. Instead, they want an investigation into the anonymous whistleblowers leaking information about Trump and his associates.

It is Congress’s job to counter abuses of power by the president. Instead, they are covering for him, likely because doing so helps Republicans enact their agenda.

Some of these bills do exactly the opposite of what Trump promised on the campaign trail, but it seems not to matter — he signs whatever Ryan and McConnell put on his desk.

Republicans do not want to lose that blank check. At every turn, they have sold out the rule of law to cross legislative goals off their list.

That is what makes Ryan and McConnell so dangerous. If Trump vanished tomorrow, it would not repair the damage Republican congressional leaders have done to our democratic institutions by putting party over country. It is time we focused not just on Trump’s impeachable offenses, but also on those in Washington who protect him from consequences and devalue the separation of powers for their own gain.

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